Enrique Lister

Enrique Lister (21 April 1907-8 December 1994) was a Brigadier-General in the Spanish Republican Army during the Spanish Civil War, a General of the Red Army of the Soviet Union during World War II, and a general of Josip Broz Tito's Yugoslav People's Army. A former member of the Communist Party of Spain, he fled to Russia after Nationalist Spain rose to power in 1939, and he served in both the Soviet and Yugoslavian militaries, having the rare distinction of being a general in three armies. He returned to Spain after democracy was restored in 1977, and he died in Madrid in 1994.

Biography
Enrique Lister was born on 21 April 1907 in Ameneiro, La Coruna, Galicia, Spain. He worked as a stonemason and grew up in Cuba before his family returned to Spain, whereupon he joined the Communist Party of Spain. Lister fled back to Cuba in 1931 after the Second Spanish Revolution led to a republic being declared, and he led a failed communist uprising against Cuban president Gerardo Machado. From 1932 to 1935, he attended the Frunze Military Academy in the Soviet Union, and he joined the elite Fifth Regiment during the Spanish Civil War. Lister commanded the 1st Mixed Brigade at the Battle of Sesena on 29 October 1936 during a failed breakout from besieged Madrid, but he helped in the victory at the Battle of Guadalajara. He was regarded as a war hero for his service to Republican Spain during these battles and other major ones such as Guadalajara, Brunete, Belchite, and Teruel, but he was blamed by Juan Modesto for the loss of the International Tank Regiment in the Aragon Offensive, leading to a rivalry between them. After the war, Lister moved to Moscow and became a General in the USSR's Red Army, taking part in the 1944 relief of the Siege of Leningrad. In late 1959, he was one of the 100 Spanish-speaking advisers that the Soviets sent to help Fidel Castro's chief of intelligence Ramiro Valdes in organizing the Cuban internal forces, and he later became a General in the Yugoslav People's Army. After the Soviets crushed the 1968 Prague Spring uprising in Czechoslovakia, Lister left the Communist Party and founded the Spanish Communist Workers' Party in 1973, returning to Spain in 1977 after Francisco Franco's death and the restoration of democracy. He rejoined the Communist Party, and he died in 1994.